Two and a half years ago, my wife and I travelled to Maui to attend a dear friends wedding and rented a car via Costco travel from Alamos Kahalui location. The next morning, on returning from a brief hike before the wedding ceremony, we discovered that the battery on the key fob had died, and in trying to get the car restarted, the engine decided to kill itself.in a relatively remote part of the island with no cell-phone access and the wedding looming, we were forced to hitchhike back to our hotel where we called Alamo to attempt to rectify the situation. After some messing about with a national rep, we were finally contact by a less than pleasant local representative. Despite the fact that Alamo had provided us with a defective car/key-fob, she had the gall to demand that we pay for the towing. Even more unreasonably, instead of offering us a replacement car from the local outpost (5 minutes from our hotel), she insisted that we come back to the airport to pick up a replacement (an hour and a half round trip at least). Frustrated with the Alamo reps increasingly patently absurd demands, we declined getting a replacement, and asked for a refund for the unused days. The local Alamo rep refused to do so. Having to depart for our friends nuptials, we negotiated the drop-off of the key (on our departure from Maui at the airport the next afternoon), and opted to pick up the dialogue when we returned from our vacation.
The next day, we cabbed it back to the airport, dropped the key off at the Alamo counter as agreed, and flew home. On returning from our vacation, we contacted Alamos national customer service and explained the situation. They apologized for the situation, agreed that the car was broken, the situation handled badly, and that we were owed a refund for the unused day. The rep said, reasonably enough, that they couldnt refund the amount, as it was through an external travel agency, but that they would mail vouchers for the appropriate sum. Vouchers were received (although we never used them before the expired), case closedneither party was made whole, but as far as we were concerned, we were all even.
Flash forward a year. Were contacted by Enterprise Holdings, Alamos junkyard dog debt repo wing. We are being held for nearly $800 in charges related to towing (for a defective vehicle, need I remind) and a missing key (which was returned, as agreed upon, to the rental counter at Kahalui airportI cant be held responsible for Alamos sloppy internal
procedures for rental returns). My wife called the listed number and explained to the representative that this matter was settled some time back, but the rather discourteous lady instead harangues, belittles and insults her repeatedly, insisting that my wife is wrong. This was going from patently criminal to nauseatingly inappropriate. I called back and insist that the matters been settled and to cease contact, with the threat that we will continue taking this up the chain of command should this persist. We, thankfully, dont receive any more calls. Once again it seemed like Alamo had, internally, come to its senses.
It seems, however, that Alamo has no sense of reason or moral rightness.
Another year passes. Alamo seems to have passed the buck onto a collections agency. Lovely. Sadly, this is the level of professionalism that one can expect from the contemptible Alamo. I was willing to hold my tongue regarding Alamos poor fleet of cars and increasingly poor service, but really, given this sort of continuing abuse, the truth will out. Perhaps its time that I put my SEO skills to work.
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